THE NAIVE BOCHE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 52, 1 March 1919, Page 17

THE NAIVE BOCHE.

; $By MAJOE DANIEL T. PTEECE, <2_ef of ihe Bureau of Public Informa tian far the Eed Cross in Paris.)

they can never know and never «sn understand is the unsatisfying conclusion to which one c_ forced after encountering and pondering upon the attitude rt the Boche following the signing of the armistice. The Alsatian reservist who, with his gnu in his hand and a doll's trunk under __. arm, marched smilingly into Ist Division headquarters ;n Gravenmarchen, I__e_.burg, was no more mystifying than the Prussian in the little town of JTtttel who hung out a French flag when the Americans appeared on the western fcank of the Moselle.

The attitude of both and of all Germans I have seen since the armistice ■was signed is one of blank unconsciousness of any reason why Americans should feel animosity whatever toward a German. The war, they seem to say, is happily ever. Germany demonstrated that she was capable of fighting a world of e__mie_ for more than four years; so far as the sufferings of the war are concerned we are all in the same boat, so ■why should not everyone shake hands and forge, the rancours of conflict? This latter statement is not quite correct, for there is absolutely nothing in the German attitude to indicate that there has been any rancour. Needless to say, this is a very difficult attitude with which to deal. * You may have heard that a man is a bloodthirsty villain who has violated every law of decency and fair play, but if upon first meeting him he approaches you ■with "utsretched band and a smile of goodfellowship. an air of being utterly unaware of your opinion of him, it is Tery difficult to know just what to do. Howev_\ if one wants evidence that there is a thought-out plan behind the Boche mask of brotherhood be can perhaps find it in the addresses that have been made during the last week to American prisoners departina from German prison camps. These addresses are all pitched in the same key. At V ill:n_en the farewell address to the prisoners •was delivered by an adjutant appointed to take charge of the camp after the soldiers and civilians ha. stripped the eld commander of his epaulettes and Dut an official of their own selection in eharse. He congratulated the prisoners <m their early release, and told them that he shared their _adne. 5 in bein? able to return to their families, but, he added, "you must not take away any hard feeling to Germany. You must feel as friendly toward us as we now feel toward you, and join with us in demanding a peace which will enable Germany to fri- in future without molestation from her enemies.'"' He charged the prisoners to take home this message and to say that the world had nothing more to fear from Germany so lonu as her rights were respected by other nations. Other _>n__ander_ made talks of a similar kind.

The mysterious attitude of unaffected innocence is not at all confined to the straggling Boche soldiery to be encountered on the borders of the occupied territory, nor to the civilians of this region. It is manifested in a great variety of ways. For instance, many German prisoners in France, and I hear that the same is true in England, are askinc* people with whom they come into contact about the possibility of getting employment after peace is si<med. There is apparently no consciousness whatever of any reason why an Englishman, a Frenchman or an American should not wish to arranjre at this moment to employ a German, even one who had been taken prisoner from a piratical submarine.

From all these manifestations nf the titter inability of the Boche to understand why we are not wiling at once to accept him on a plane of entire friendliness and good fellowship. I cannot keep my memory from goinir beck to the soldier who aspeared a tew ni_hts ago at the Ist DTvision headquarters still carryin? his gun, apparently expecting to be received as a long-lost Ijrother. announcing simply that he had been told that the war was over, and had decided to visit his relatives in Luxemburg. That the American army was occupying the town, and oreparimr to cross into Prussia gave him no concern, and hi? hurt bewilderment when an unfee!in_ M.P. led him off to be questioned by an intelligence officer satisfied mc then, as it satisfies mc now, that wr shall never be able to understand the Boche any more than he will be able to understand why the brin_i_r about of the war. the subfnarine campaign, the bombardment of Paris, the devastation of Northern Prance, the looting of private property, the abuse of women and children, the _.mbb__ of hospitals have created in our minds a feeling that no terms of peace can obliterate.